HYDERABAD: Congress MLA Komatireddy Rajagopal Reddy has once again stirred debate within the party by openly backing fellow legislator Yennem Srinivas Reddy’s call for constituency development funds to be placed under the discretionary control of MLAs.
While Congress MLAs pressing for funds is not unusual, Rajagopal Reddy brought the issue into sharp focus by stressing that it is the chief minister’s responsibility to allocate funds for constituency-specific needs in addition to implementing welfare schemes.
In an opinion piece published in a leading Telugu daily, Yennem Srinivas Reddy urged the state government to earmark Rs 25 crore per constituency, to be spent at the discretion of the local MLA.
He argued that such an arrangement would allow elected representatives to address grassroots-level issues directly, without delays caused by bureaucratic approvals.
Rajagopal Reddy endorsed this view by sharing the newspaper excerpt on X. In his post, he asserted that a majority of legislators hold similar opinions, contending that discretionary funds would help improve living standards by enabling quicker redressal of local concerns.
His intervention is in line with his recent pattern of taking positions at variance with the state leadership. Just days ago, he had extended support to online media personnel while criticising the chief minister’s remarks against them — another signal of his readiness to challenge the government’s stance both within and outside the Assembly.
How the government responds to these renewed demands for constituency-level discretionary funds remains to be seen.